Have been a Very Firm Believer in VOMs most of My life > Until Today ~

Another BackUp Light Issue ~ Only this 1 is Switch Related ~ Have a Friends

87Westy @ My Place that I am doing a bunch of Stuff to & while moving it last

night discovered that the B'U'Lights were not working ~ Bulbs checked out OK

so I pulled the wires off the Switch, Jumped them & the Lights Worked ~ Found

Used Spare that I had & put a VOM to it to see if it was OK & it showed roughly

325 Ohms when pressed so figured it ought to pretty much be usable ~ Put it

in & the B'U'Lights worked Just Fine ~ Decided to VOM the Old "Bad" Switch &

was Quite Surprised when it showed a DeadShort when pressed ~ Decided to

put it back in only to find that it Produced No Lights ~ Put My Spare back in & I

get Lights ~ ReVOMed "Bad" Switch > DeadShort > Put It back In > No Lights ~

My UsedSpare is now in place & the B'U'Lights are Working Nicely ~

                                                        ORR ~ DeanB

On 11 Apr , 2017, at 2:11 PM, David Beierl wrote:

> Your voltmeter should be able to tell you where the problem lies.
> 
> Yrs,
> d
> 
> On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Yeah, DC circuits are famous for floating currents when grounds are
>> disrupted.  I'll replace the ground wires and connectors and see what
>> happens.
>> 
>> Stuart
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dennis Haynes [mailto:d23haynes57@hotmail.com]
>> Sent: Monday, April 10, 2017 6:42 PM
>> To: Stuart MacMillan; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: RE: Backup light puzzle anyone?
>> 
>> You need to look at the grounds at one of the rear sockets. Resistance at
>> the grounds is putting the 2 lamps in series from the other bulbs giving
>> you
>> the half voltage causing the low current sensitivity of the LEDs to light
>> up.
>> 
>> Dennis
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
>> Stuart MacMillan
>> Sent: Monday, April 10, 2017 9:09 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Backup light puzzle anyone?
>> 
>> I got a pair of LED back up "bulbs" along with the other LEDs for my '85
>> automatic transmission Vanagon, and they are on all the time when ignition
>> is on (other bulbs work fine). The switch on the selector is brand new
>> (both
>> parts), but there is a constant 5v at the backup lights and at the switched
>> contact on the selector switch, and the proper 12 volts on the power side.
>> 5v is enough to illuminate the LEDs.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> There has to be some kind of short in the wiring between the switch and the
>> lights, but where would that wire pick up 5 volts?  The rear taillight
>> light
>> assemblies are in excellent condition and I've re-done the ground at the
>> left taillight.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I've had to go back to the filament bulbs until I can figure this one out.
>> Or maybe just forget about the LEDs because the short is probably buried
>> somewhere in the wrapped harness under the van.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> No end to the fun!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Stuart
>>